I have built up my synth bass rig slowly over the past 12 months. Before the recent arrival of the Axon AX-100, for a polyphonic midi signal, I was using a Sonuus B2M - which, for tracking, actually stacks up pretty well compared to the Axon, except it's only monophonic. So, I think the B2M is quite OK for anyone wanting to test the water of synth bass without a great deal of expense.
My main desire for driving a synthesizer is to be able to throw the occasional cello into the mix in the church band. For that purpose the XV-2020 has a decent choice of tones (and its half-rack size suits me, too). I've yet to explore all that this synth has to offer, beyond other bass related voices. My setup is:
Ashton AB1505 5-string bass ->
Roland GK-3B ->
Axon AX-100 ->
Midi Solutions Quadra Merge ->
Roland XV-2020 ->
Eden Nemesis ENX-260 Bass Amp
also,
Behringer FCB-1010 Midi Foot Controller ->
Midi Solutions Quadra Merge ->
Roland XV-2020 ->
Eden Nemesis ENX-260
The raw instrument signal goes from the Axon straight to the Eden input, which is muted by the Eden foot pedal. The XV output goes to the Eden's Aux input, and I can control its volume with the FCB-1010 expression pedal(s). So that gives me independent mutability of each signal path.
The full rig is at the bottom of this post (
AXON - Forum • View topic - AX-100 face refit: losing the rack ears) which details my recent project of giving the AX-100 a facelift.
Peter Sharp
Ballarat Australia
